Attack on Titan – The Final Episode – Fear and Love

Hoo boy, this was a ride and a half. I’m always a little overwhelmed trying to review a movie-length episode, and that did not change with this nearly 90-minute finale of finales of one of the biggest animes in history. There’s also the reality that the drip-drip-drip of final episodes and specials sapped a little of my enthusiasm, much as it did for iconic shows like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and to a lesser extent, GoT.

But for now I’ll break down the desperate final mission of the now-united faction of Titan and non-Titan Scouts to save and/or stop Eren from, well ending the world. He doesn’t make it easy, nor does Founder Ymir, who is able to conjure a seemingly unlimited number of iterations of the original nine Titans to defend Eren from their aerial attack.

Reiner and Pieck are the only Titans in their first wave, with Armin holding his Colossal powder as a last resort. But as the non-Titans start running out of ammo and stamina, it’s starting to look like they have to shift to a Kill-Eren strategy, something Mikasa never wants to hear. The group gets a big boost from the surprise arrival of Annie, who decides to join the fight after all, along with Gabi, who are riding Falco—now a very handy winged Jaw Titan.

Before they arrive, however, Armin is scooped up by an okapi Titan, and after yelling at himself to wake up, ends up in the Paths with Zeke. The older Yeager believes the meaning of life is to simply multiply, and that they developed fear in order to do so with more urgency.

Armin takes a more personal tack: there are times he believes he was only put on this earth to run around with Eren and Mikasa back home, behind Wall Maria. He even accepted that there was a specific order to that: Eren leading, Mikasa pretending to trail, and him bringing up the rear.

Both men manage to escape the purgatory of the Paths when Armin finds a leaf from that tree he and Eren and Mikasa always used to run to; to Zeke, it appears as the baseball that gave him so much joy to throw back and forth. Amrin ends up being freed from the okapi Titan and caught by Annie in her Titan form. I’m glad they got to reunite, even here at what may well still be the end of all things.

Armin and Zeke aren’t alone: they called upon those former Titans who died, in order to fight the multiplying Titans Ymir was sending at the others. Zeke offers his neck to Levi, who beheads him, and the Rumbling stops just a few yards short of thousands of men, women, and children trapped upon a sheer cliff.

Armin orders the other scouts to retreat aboard Falco so he can blow up the gigantic Attack/Founding Titan with his Colossal Titan’s explosion. But while the Rumbling has ceased, a weird translucent caterpillar thing still works to get back to Eren’s Titan, which would start it back up again. It even turns everyone back at the military camp, including Gabi, into a gaggle of Titans to defend it.

Only those who are already Titan wielders and the Ackermanns are immune, so Levi and Mikasa head back to where Armin’s Titan continues to do battle with Eren’s Titan.

Then, suddenly, Mikasa wakes up, as if from a long dream. She’s with Eren at a bucolic cabin up in the gorgeous mountains. This is the life they’d have led if Eren had gone with her and left their life of fighting and killing behind.

In reality, it’s just an illusion within the Paths, but it does enable Mikasa and Eren to talk again, since the last time they were in person he said some horrible things.

With Levi’s help, Mikasa manages to break through Eren’s Titan’s teeth to where his body is located, where she beheads and kisses him while Founder Ymir watches.

Armin has his own time with Eren within the Paths, first as little kids but gradually growing older as they traverse landscapes both familiar and trippy. Eren admits to Armin that as the Founding Titan, there’s no true past or future; he sees it all at the same time.

His plan was to have him, Mikasa, and the Scouts defeat him so they could be lauded by society as the heroes who saved the earth, in hopes the conflict between Marley and Eldia could end. By attempting this plan, Eren’s Rumbling killed 80% of humanity, and left Marley in a diminished state that they couldn’t fight Paradis if they wanted to, at least not for some time.

Armin doesn’t let Eren carry the entire burden; after all, it was he who showed Eren a book about the world beyond the walls and the sea. The two embrace as brothers, with Eren telling Armin that when everything is over he’ll remember everything he told him, while Armin tells Eren they’ll suffer the consequences of what they’ve done together.

Back in the present, Armin comes to, and learns that not only him, but everyone who knew Eren had some time in the Paths with him, and only now when he’s dead do they remember those times. Mikasa heads off with Eren’s head, intending to bury it beside the tree they used to run to.

Three years pass, and we see that Historia and her child continue to live in peace, which is what Eren wanted. Marley is still picking up the pieces of their civilization, while Eldia has grown more extreme and militaristic. Armin, Annie, Connie, Reiner, Pieck and Jean have ditched their Scout uniforms for business suits, and tasked with using their status as saviors of humanity to attempt to forge a peace.

Mikasa is also at peace, having left her life of fighting and killing far behind. She visits and tends to Eren’s grave, still wearing the scarf he wrapped around her, and which he asked her to get rid of. Instead, she keeps wearing it, and keeps visiting, until she passes away.

Time goes on, both the tree and the city below the hill grow larger and taller. Over a period of untold centuries the city evolves into a futuristic metropolis, and is then leveled into ruins by weapons of mass destruction.

Who knows how many hundreds or thousands of years pass when a young boy and his dog discover a cave in the ancient tree that survived all of that history. Somewhere within its massive roots, a small stone tablet, Eren’s grave, still dwells, and his remains below it.

This final scene has an almost Made in Abyss like vibe; taking place as it does so long after everything and everyone we knew in this world had long since passed on. More than anything, it most definitely feels like a finale. This is the end; there is no more Attack on Titan.

I’ve described, with variable levels of accuracy, all the crazy stuff that happened in this movie-length episode, but it remains hard to actually put my thoughts about it into words. It was at times a hard watch, and at times an immensely joyful watch.

I guess my main takeaway is that we are all pretty much children, and our time on this earth is short, and perhaps the best way to live our lives is with as much love and as little fear as we can manage. Love can obviously instill fear—fear of loss or change—but loss and change are inevitable qualities of mortal life.

Attack on Titan never pretended to know how to answer all of the hard questions it asked about the cyclical nature of war, death, hate, extremism, and suffering that are the products of our inability as a species to achieve universal love for each other and the failure to keep fear at bay.

But simply by addressing them, sometimes awkwardly or controversially, within the limited the scope of this band of flawed, scarred, intensely human members of the Scout Regiment, and watching them grow up, drift apart, then come back together, was a monumental achievement to watch.

RABUJOI WORLD HERITAGE LIST

Attack on Titan – 87 (The Final Season Part 2 Fin) – Their Best Shot

Before we reach the end of everything, Attack on Titan takes a look back to a time that was never covered in previous episodes: the last time the Scouts (minus Reiner, Annie, etc.) were all together: when they first arrived at Marley’s biggest port. It’s great to see Sasha alive, Levi in one piece, Mikasa in her Sunday best making the cutest faces while eating ice cream for the first time…while Connie and Sasha chase a car to try to feed it a carrot.

We know the gang is there to meet with the Azumabito and weigh their options concerning Marley. Ideally they can strike some kind of peace, and Hange makes it clear that’s the primary goal to start, no matter how difficult or dangerous it might be. They know there’s a “Subjects of Ymir Protection Group” making a big speech in the forum that will shake things up…it’s not much, but as Hange says, it’s their best shot.

While everyone else is either focused on the political talks or being fish out of water in the technologically advanced city, Eren already seems distant, with a thousand-yard stare that’s more like ten thousand yards. The ever-protective Mikasa finds him looking down at a refugee camp on the city outskirts.

He can’t help but relate to these people from whom everything was suddenly stolen. Then, out of the blue (at least for her), asks Mikasa “what he is” to her. Rather than say he’s everything and she loves him, she goes the safe route, saying he’s “family.”

Following that is one of the most purely joyful sequences in all of Titandom: when Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Sasha, Connie, and Jean are invited to the tent of the refugee elders and their family. There, they get drunk and have a shitload of fun all night long.

When the booze runs out, they simply go get more, and bring more refugees to join the party. When Hange and Levi find them, they’re all passed out, with Eren naturally flanked by Mikasa and Armin, the three inseparable even in intense inebriation.

Sadly, that’s the end of the fun and joy for both the episode and for Part 2 of The Final Season. Everyone gets over their hangovers and attends the forum, their purported ally, while voicing his resolve to help those Subjects of Ymir who have suffered as much or more than Marleyans, still considers the Subjects on Paradis to be “devils” and the “true enemy.” It doesn’t look like there’s much hope for peaceful negotiation, so Eren peaces out early.

Mikasa recalls that this was the day Eren left them. As she stands on the boat in the present, headed back to the Marleyan coast to try to stop the Rumbling, she can’t help but wonder if all of this would have happened had she given Eren a different answer to the questions “what am I to you” and “why do you care about me so much.”

The answer, of course, is probably not. While I still doubt Eren meant the terrible things he said to Mikasa when they basically broke up as both friends and family, but as we see in his last talk with Historia, he believed there was no other way to stop the cycle of hate and revenge than destroying the rest of the world.

Historia is understandably horrified by his position, and by his suggestion he can use the Founder’s power to wipe her memories to soothe her pain. But what probably haunts her most is that she, the “worst girl in the world” saved his life. Had she not, he wouldn’t be here preparing to commit mass genocide against her wishes.

Later, after Eren cuts off his own leg and stabs his eye to end up in a military hospital where he and Zeke meet, he asks his brother about the “forced behavior” of members of the Ackerman clan. Zeke assures him that Mikasa’s devotion to him wasn’t blood conditioning, but simply a level of love so intense she’d happily tear through legions of Titans for him.

I wish Zeke’s words had come earlier, before Eren had already pretty much committed to betraying his brother and usurping the Eldian euthanization plan for an Everyone Else euthanization plan. After all, Eren is certain he’ll only live four more years, tops. But he wants to leave the world a place where Mikasa and Armin can live and be happy.

Unfortunately, Mikasa and Armin aren’t content to simply sit back and let Eren do this in their names; there’s no way they could ever be happy in a world that 1.) doesn’t have Eren in it and 2.) has had most of the world’ population wiped out by the Rumbling. But Eren’s got tunnel vision at this point. Unless anyone can get to him and give their best shot to convincing him to reconsider, this thing is happening.

We see the beginnings of this as the largest joint fleet in human history assembles at the coastline. Their first volley of fire destroys several dozen Colossal Titans, but then the skin of the others begins to harden and that’s all she wrote; the 20,000-ton battleships being tossed into the air like plastic toys. The last line of defense, land-based artillery units, watch this nightmare unfold and abandon their posts.

As the camera pans up to the several-thousand-foot-tall Founding Attack/Founding Titan bearing Eren’s green eyes, the vow he made as a small child before an hour of scout training, when the vision of his mother being eaten still fresh in his mind, is repeated: “I’ll kill every last one of them.”

And that’s it for Part 2. Mind you, Part 2 was not Part 2 of 2. I kinda figured that when I realized half of this episode was over and we were still in a flashback. Still, the stage is set for a Part 3, which may or may not be the final part of the final season.

Will this all come down to an epic lovers’ quarrel between Mikasa and Eren? If it does, how many cities will be leveled before it gets to that? I don’t know, but I do know the face Mikasa should make in hopes of stopping Eren:

Attack on Titan – 80 – When the Walls Fell

Eren thanks his older bother for taking him into their Dad’s memories…it’s how he was able to push Grisha into fighting the King of the Walls. Eren saw his future when he kissed Historia’s hand, but Zeke still thinks he has Eren in check. After all, Eren didn’t know he couldn’t use the Founder’s power in the Paths. What Zeke didn’t know is that Eren would rip off his own thumbs to escape his bonds and stop Ymir from obeying Zeke’s command.

What follows is the long, sad story of Founder Ymir, from back when she was just an ordinary girl delivering water to those who needed it. One day, her world was set ablaze by a raiding army, and her life of selfless service became one of brutal servitude. When a pig escapes the barn, all the other slaves point their finger at Ymir, as if confirming that she is the one to bear all of the pain and suffering of this world.

Ymir is “freed”, but only so her captors can hunt her. Run through by two arrows, she collapses at the foot of a massive tree, with a hollow that leads to a massive underground lake. There, she encounters…“something”. Be it an alien, parasite, or god, it imbues Ymir with the power to transform into the first Titan—the Founding Titan.

The King of Eldia uses Ymir as a weapon with which to create a massive empire and conquer Marley; he also claims her as his consort. She bears three daughters—Maria, Rose, and Sina—and when an assassin tries to kill the King, Ymir takes a staff through the chest. In one of the more graphic scenes of the whole show, he eventually chops Ymir up and forces his daughters to eat her so the Titan power can be carried on.

Ymir’s daughters procreate, then their offspring procreates, each time creating a new branch on the tree of life in the Paths. Meanwhile Ymir returns to the form of a young girl walking slowly across the endless sands, up and down ramps, building Titans one bucket at a time. Even after death, she could not escape servitude, nor the responsibility that came with her chance encounter with “something.”

That is, until 2,000 years later, when Eren arrives, and instead of ordering to end the Eldians forever, he gives her a hug and tells her she’s neither a slave nor a god, and never was. She’s just a person; a person who has been waiting for someone like him. For the first time, Ymir’s empty eyes come to life and shed tears, and she makes the same face Eren made when he saw his future four years ago.

I don’t know if it’s Ymir, the “something” within her, or both who decide to side with Eren, but it is the “something” we see connecting his head to his neck even though Gabi just blew it off. Thanks to them, Eren is still alive, and the Rumbling commences.

And let me tell you, it is something to see. The walls begin to crumble—not just Maria, but all three—and out of their ruins, a terrifying legion of Colossal Titans. But even they are dwarfed by Eren’s latest and possibly final form, an intricate construction of ribs and spines. There are now three different orders of scale—Mikasa and Armin, the Colossal Titans, and whatever Eren has become.

Fortunately for Mikasa and Armin, they are not crushed or obliterated in the clouds of debris the Rumbling creates. Armin is proven half-correct, in that Eren was their ally all along, and looking after the people behind the walls. I say only half-right because Armin did not imagine Eren would bring all three walls down. Doing so means he has far larger designs than merely crushing the Marley alliance.

Eren confirms those greater ambitions in a telepathic communication that reaches every single Subject of Ymir, both on Paradis Island and the rest of the world. He’s sick of the world trying to annihilate his people, so instead he and his army of Wall Titans will annihilate the rest of the world. He won’t stop until every enemy city, town, and village, and every non-Eldian life, is extinguished. I don’t see how anyone can stand in his way.

Attack on Titan – 69 – Love Is in the Air

Things in present-day Paradis are pretty grim, but leave it to Hange to liven things up a bit by getting all pedantic about an incarcerated Eren repeating “fight” into his mirror. Hange is there to talk, just like the first time they met, only this time they’d prefer if he did most of the talking. If nothing else, Hange believed Eren would never sacrifice Historia (which is necessary for the Rumbling). Yet here they are.

Flash back to two years ago, with the Scouts and Yelena’s Marleyans welcoming the first outside visitors to Paradis’ rebuilt port: Paradis’s sole friendly nation, Hizuru, and its special envoy, Azumabito Kiyomi. During initial pleasantries, Kiyomi presents the shogunate crest: three katanas forming a triangle. Eren urges Mikasa to reveal what she’s only ever shown to him: that very same crest on top of her right wrist.

That’s right: Mikasa is the long-lost descendant and rightful heir to Hizuru’s throne. Queen Historia immediately feels a deepened kinship with Mikasa, as both were born with a heavy burden to bear. It’s just that unlike ‘Tori, Mikasa likely has no intention of uprooting her life, so say nothing of leaving Eren’s side.

Kiyomi has come to Paradis on Zeke Yeager’s invitation, as he enticed them with the prospect of mining the unique resource known as “Iceburst Stone” which fuels Paradis’ ODM gear. They’re excited at the prospect of restoring their former glory by taking the lead in an innovative industry. It also becomes clear that the Azumabitos of Hizuru are particularly concerned with profit, however it can be acquired.

Zeke’s plan to use the Rumbling to protect Paradis consists of three stages, as presented to Historia and all the island’s higher-ups. First, there will be a “test run” of the Rumbling, then strengthening of the Paradis military. Finally, the Founding Titan and a Titan with royal blood will be passed down. Zeke will pass the Beast Titan to a royal, and for thirteen years that royal’s primary task will be to have as many children as possible.

This plan makes sense in the present, but it does nothing about the overarching problem of the power of the Titans bringing ruin upon Eldians. Basically, the cure (i.e. the successful defense of Paradis) is worse than the disease. Hange understands this, and doesn’t like the prospect of kicking the can down the road to future generations, as previous ones did to them.

Back in the present, Hange tells Eren she felt the same urgency to weigh the protection of their lands against the cost it would incur, but still wishes Eren hadn’t gone off on his own, which severely limited their remaining options. Eren’s only response is that no prison can hold him now that he has the Warhammer Titan, so if Hange has “anything up her sleeve”, now’s the time to come out with it.

As for Queen Historia, she became pregnant in the ensuing two years, as discussed by a good old boy’s club getting drunk and discussing future strategy. The father of the child she’s carrying once threw rocks at her on her farm and later volunteered at her orphanage as penance. It was Historia who initiated their eventual liason resulting in her pregnancy.

One old man, Roeg, drunk on wine, can’t believe the queen got herself knocked up, and suggests they make her a Titan despite her pregnancy; no one else thinks that’s right or wise. Roeg suspects it was Yelena who convinced Tori to get pregnant, but he really has no idea. These guys, by the way, are being attended to by Greiz and Niccolo, who serve under Yelena.

Looking back two years ago, Eren, Mikasa, Armin, Sasha, Connie, and Jean are all hard at work building a Paradis railroad, of all things, when Hange and Levi pay them a visit to report that Hizuru gave their reply: they won’t help Paradis open trade with other nations, as they’re committed to a monopoly on the island’s resources.

The rest of the world’s nations remaining united against Paradis, Root of All Evil, creates stability they’re unwilling to give up. That means they have little choice but to rely on the Rumbling for defense, which means sacrificing Historia. Armin wishes they’d reconsider a more peaceful path, but Mikasa tells him it’s no good; as long as those nations don’t know who and what they really are, they’ll always fear them.

An alternative plan, then, involves showing them who and what they are, by setting up a base in Marley. Eren worries time is running short; he only has five more years as a Titan. Then talk turns to who will inheret his Titan. Obviously, Mikasa volunteers first, but Jean vetoes, as there’s too much mystery surrounding the Ackermans.

Jean volunteers, but Connie believes he’s too valuable as a future regiment commander. Connie volunteers, but Sasha says they can’t leave such an important role to an idiot, so she volunteers. Connie says she’s more of an idiot than he is, so that wouldn’t work. Then Eren says he doesn’t want any of them to have to inherit it. They’re all too important to him, and he wants them to live long lives. This causes all of them to turn red—apropos for Valentines.

Back in the darker, bleaker, narrower present, Mikasa, Armin, Jean and Connie discuss what’s next now that Eren seems to be going all in on Zeke’s plan. If Eren is choosing Zeke over them, they may need to cut him down, but of course Mikasa would never allow that. She assures them it won’t come to that, that he still cares about them.

But Jean mentions how the old Eren would try to keep Mikasa off the front lines. The new one pulled them into an unnecessary battle that got Sasha killed. And worse, Connie mentions how Eren laughed when he heard Sasha had died. Armin decides that he and Mikasa will talk to Eren alone and try to see how he sees things. Because he may not be Eren anymore, and thus may not consider them as important as exacting final revenge upon Marley and the world.

Attack on Titan – 49 (S3 Fin) – To The Basement

The bigwigs decide that the serum Kenny gave Levi should stay with Levi, to use if, when, and where he deems necessary. Where Levi bumps up against the brass is when Erwin insists on leading the battle to retake Wall Maria.

Even when Levi threatens to break his legs, Erwin is adamant about being present when they learn the truth, and if they retake the wall and gain access to the basement of Eren’s house. If he dies before that, so be it; Hange will take command in his place, and someone else if she dies.

The night before the battle (which is kept secret from the public) is to commence, the Scouts are treated to a morale-boosting feast that includes meat, something that’s been in short supply since Maria fell.

The mere sight of the meat on the table sends Sasha into an uncontrollable berserk mode, and she has to be tied up. Meanwhile, Eren and Jean start heartily going at it, at first with words, then with their fists…but no one stops them, at least until Levi kicks their asses and orders them to bed.

Mikasa and Armin decided not to interfere in Eren’s fight with Jean, both due to his quick healing, and the fact that it’s just nice to see Eren being “spunky” again, rather than moping or skulking or wallowing in despair. No doubt his experiences with Historia have changed his perspective and narrowed what he deems his responsibility.

He’s no longer trying to do everything on his own, or feeling like he needs to. Rather, he now accepts that nobody, not even Mikasa and Levi (of whom he always jealous for their ridiculous strength and skills) can accomplish much alone. Individuals have to find what they can do, and then rely on others for the rest.

The next morning, it’s quickly apparent the embargo on news relating to the battle for Maria was broken by Flugel, whose company provided the meat for the scouts the previous night.

As a result, the regiment gets perhaps its warmest and most enthusiastic sendoff, with the crowds below cheering as the scouts scale the wall, and Erwin pumping them up with battle cries and an order to commence.

It’s all very triumphant…but I couldn’t help but feel uneasy. It’s not going to be easy to retake a whole wall, after all, and it’s certainly not going to happen this third season.

Rather, we’ll have to wait for a fourth, and judging from the little teaser we get mid-credits—in which a bloodsoaked Levi slugs Eren and ends up with Mikasa’s blade at his throat—it’s clear that all of the hardships overcome this season will be replaced by a whole new batch of new ones.

And then there’s the nagging question of whether we’ll ever see that dang basement—or if it will continue to endure as one of anime’s longest and most frustrating teases. Until next year (or whenever), farewell, AoT.

Attack on Titan – 48 – A Story Utterly Useless to Humanity

Since ascending to the throne, Queen Historia seems to have led a very modest lifestyle, preferring to run an orphanage in the countryside than sitting on some gilded chair in a stuffy hall. The people call her the “Cattle-Farming Goddess”, and it’s not at all meant as an insult.

Also, as both she and Eren continue to adjust to their new roles they are spending a lot of time together, side-by-side, and some of that time they are engaged in what some could call flirting, and I am THERE for it. I am also there for Mikasa shutting such instances down with a glare for the ages.

Speaking of glares, all of the scouts we’ve followed realize how much they’ve been through in the last few months, and how they’re no longer newbies or rookies or greenhorns. They are veterans, and their ‘resting grave faces’ practically scream “we’ve been through some shit” to their “juniors” in the 104th who relatively speaking haven’t seen much action. They certainly haven’t seen their former comrades and friends turn into Titans.

But whatever shit they’ve been through pales compared to Eren, who has been through some truly existential, philosophical shit. As Jean remarks, he’s always off in the corner muttering weird shit to himself, like whether those who are Titans are merely being tormented by some kind of nightmare (Ymir’s word for it) that takes a terrifying physical form.

However, thanks to the flashes he’s been getting, he now knows who to talk to next about his father: no less than the cadet corps commandant (i.e. hardass drill sergeant) Keith Sadies. He, Levi, and the other scouts in their circle return to where their training began. Keith can tell how much they’ve been through, and how they’re no longer the maggots who crawled into his camp not too long ago.

Still, he doesn’t know how helpful he can be to Eren & Co., other than telling them the story of how he first met Grisha Yeager twenty years ago, at the gates of Shiganshina, dazed confused, and lacking memories of how he got outside the wall.

Grisha eventually remembers he is a doctor, and starts serving the people of the district in that role curing them of plague and other maladies—including the bar waitress Carla, in whom Keith seemed interested, but who would later become Grisha’s wife and give birth to Eren.

Keith also distinguished himself, rising to Scout Regiment commander (Erwin’s predecessor). He was well-suited for scouting, as life inside the walls always felt too cramped for him. But he also could sense that he wasn’t “special” enough to do much with his position or his life outside the walls, something all but confirmed when he led an assault on the Titans that ended in defeat and an embarrassing retreat that harmed the Scouts’ reputation with the people.

By the time he returns from this defeat, he, Grisha, and Carla, once so close, had drifted far apart, and Carla had little Eren. Carla and her husband worry about Keith and when his next mission will kill him, but Keith angrily tells her that he’s not like the other multitudes of people within the walls, utterly lacking imagination and unashamed of living “useless” lives producing “nothing but shit.”

It’s perhaps too harsh a diatribe to subject to a mother holding her young child, but considering what he just returned from, his rage and exasperation were understandable.

By the time the Colossal and Armored Titans breach the wall at Shiganshina, Keith had already stepped down as Commander. Lacking that “special” quality he felt to be absolutely essential, Keith felt he had accomplished nothing, because that’s all normal people can do. All he could hope for was to be a “bystander,” not a leader or agent of change. He joined the flow of those he once despised, feeling he had no other choice.

Hange is disgusted by what she sees as nothing but puerile self-pity on Keith’s part…but being pretty damn special herself, she can’t really ever relate to how he felt in the past when he gave up his title, or how he feels now.

In the aftermath of Shiganshina, he and Grisha crossed paths once more, but not for long. Rather than avenge Carla as Keith suspected he would, Grisha took Eren away and fashioned him into his instrument of vengeance.

The utter hatred for and desire to kill all Titans that Eren possesses at the very beginning of the series was instilled not only by what he witnessed, but also at the urging of his father. And Keith was the one to find him unconscious in the woods, with Grisha, who’d likely injected him with the power of the Titan earlier, nowhere to be found.

Eren too has also come to believe he’s not special either, merely the son of someone special. He was chosen, sure, but by that father. Everything he is and does, he became because of that father’s choices.

It’s a somewhat narrow view that ignores the fact he had to make his own choices along the way, but never mind; his mother Carla never cared whether his son was “special” or “normal”; instead, she felt it was special enough simply to be alive, and to be able to survive.

Out of worry for his ultimate well-being, Keith worked hard to keep Eren from getting into the Scout Regiment. But Eren was able to overcome everything he threw at him, including sabotage to his ODM training gear. But it wasn’t that Keith Sadies couldn’t do anything because he was’t special; it was because he was Keith Sadies.

Attack on Titan – 47 – How to Say Hello

When Kenny Ackerman first meets Uri Reiss, he’s at Uri’s mercy: Uri transformed into a Titan and grabbed Kenny with his big Titan hand, threatening to crush him. But he never does. When Kenny somewhat profanely begs for his life, Uri grants it. Uri understands the grudges the Ackermans hold against the Reiss, after all.

Instead of imprisoning or killing Kenny, Uri befriends and hires him. Kenny’s service ends the persecution of his family, but it’s too late for his sister Kuchel, whom he finds lying dead in a brothel…and a starving young Levi sitting in the corner.

Kenny thought he was the most powerful guy around…until he met Uri. And yet for all his power Uri was merciful; empathetic…compassionate. By throwing in with Uri, Kenny is still plenty powerful as well, and perhaps its for that reason he has the compassion not to let Levi die.

However, Kenny isn’t interested in being anyone’s father, so after teaching Levi how to properly survive in the cutthroat underground, he abandons him, leading to Levi’s present-day hatred of him. Meanwhile, Kenny is the last person Uri meets with before the ritual in which Freida eats him and gains his power.

He tells Kenny about the paradise he dreams of building within the Walls, and how even after he’s gone, Kenny’s services will still be required to realize that dream. The first time Kenny sees Freida after the ritual, he can tell Uri’s in there, looking back at him.

Kenny raises his paramilitary Anti-Personnel Squad, made up of the best of the best, and together they have many bloody adventures in the name of the Reiss. But all of that crumbled when Historia refused to keep the wheel turning and chose to break it instead.

With his squad all dead and his burns and wounds likely to take his wretched life any minute, Kenny ponders using the Titan serum he stole from Rob. But he doesn’t, and when Levi finds him, he points out how he could have injected himself at any time.

Like his friend Uri sparing his life, Kenny decides not to go the obvious path. In his last moments he thrusts the box containing the serum to Levi, his nephew, to do with whatever he pleases, and dies grateful he was able to experience the slightest glimmer of cool, pure compassion he felt emanating from Uri at all times.

Later, Historia is officially crowned before a vast audience, many of whom witnessed her slaying the Titan firsthand, and the rest of them hear the story, are impressed, and pass it on. Rather than more lies and secrets, Tori showed them something real and honest; an act that makes her worthy of the throne. Later, when she gives Levi a playful punch, Levi’s reaction is simply to laugh and thank her and everyone else for everything.

Everything looks primed to get shaken up again, as we check in on Bertholdt, Reiner, and the Beast Titan who is Eren’s father Grisha, and who desperately wants to reunite with his son. Not because he misses him,but because Eren is the Coordinate.

Attack on Titan – 46 – Playing to the Crowd

The Rob Reiss Big-Ass Titan is coming; there’s no getting around it. And it’s attracted to huge groups of people, so it’s avoiding villages and going straight for the densely populated Orvud District, which Erwin keeps UN-evacuated.

Using the citizens of bait may at first seem to run counter to their first mission to protect the people, but if Orvud is emptied the Titan will head to the main wall and possibly break all the way through to Mitras.

I assumed we’d get some kind of Battle of Helm’s Deep-style all-nighter siege, but dawn arrives far quicker than I expected, but both the wall defenses and the Scouts are as prepared as they’re going to be.

They’ve got a plan. Historia isn’t sitting on the sidelines to let her future subjects bear the brunt of the battle; she’s on the front lines, against Erwin’s urging. She muses that if she’s to be accepted as the new ruler, she must earnit with deeds, not simply lean on her name.

In a nice nod to the opening, which IMO is the best of any Titan season, Eren notices a trio of kids not unlike him, Mikasa and Armin back in episode one, on a similarly lovely day, before the Colossal Titan attacked.

Showing Eren looking behind his back and seeing who he must protect is a nice move, and the three kids are the first citizens who I actually want them to protect (a bunch of others are annoyed they have to carry out an evacuation drill).

As for Eren punching himself until the weak, ineffectual, useless brat within him is “gone for good”, that doesn’t work quite as well, but I like the fact that he’s inspired by Historia’s transformation into one of the strongest among them.

When the Rob Titan reaches the wall, no amount of artillery bombardment does much good, and he puts his hands on he top of the wall and stands up, revealing his face and half of his head has been sheared away.

The Scouts shoot more gunpowder into him, and Eren transforms into a Titan to personally deliver another load of powder directly into the very large and open head cavity, thus destroying the core from the inside.

This is where the wheel is broken and history doesn’t repeat itself; the three kids are scared, but their homes and families are spared the cruel, gruesome fates of Eren’s, Mikasa’s and Armin’s.

Even more significant, the fates conspire to make Historia, not Eren, the public savior of the day, as the assembled masses watch in awe as she delivers the killing blow to the Titan core high over the city, before landing in a wagon.

Little do they know she just had her first—and last—fight with her dad. And she won.

When she rises from her fall, she promptly tells all within earshot her name, Historia Reiss, and her position: their ruler. It’s yet another badass moment in perhaps the best character arc Titan has yet delivered. She achieved what she set out to achieve: gain credibility with the people and legitimize her claim to the throne though great heroic deeds.

Meanwhile, Kenny bleeds out against a tree not far from the destroyed Reiss caverns, his entire team destroyed in the fracas the night before. Levi arrives to confront and possibly arrest him, but takes a look at Kenny’s burns and wounds and declares him beyond healing. Kenny isn’t so sure, and presents a syringe of…something. Is that Titan serum? Whatever it is, Levi needs to be on guard.

Attack on Titan – 45 – Her Next Duty

The bad news? Rob Reiss transforms into an utterly massive Titan, far larger even than the Colossal. The good news? He’s no immediate threat to anyone in particular, just the structural integrity of the cavern and the chapel above it.

While neither of those two things survives the episode, everybody who set out to rescue Eren and Historia does. All the damage he causes allows Levi & Co. to escape Kenny’s trap and access the chamber where Eren and Historia are.

Even while free, Eren is lost. He was fully prepared to be eaten by Historia (and we later learn Historia momentarily considered transforming him and eating him so as not to be hated by her Dad). Between his antics and the sins of his father, Eren initially just sobs about being so worthless. His friends aren’t enthused. They risked their necks to get to him; the least he can do is not want to die, rendering their efforts in vain.

So Eren bucks up a bit, and bites down on a vial labeled “Armor.” The result of ingesting the serum within allows the Eren Titan to use the same Titan Hardening ability as the Armored Titan, building an avant-garde yet sturdy cage around his friends in order to save them from the growing Rob-Titan, which Levi dubs the “Big-Ass Titan.” It’s accurate!

Once they free Eren from his still fully-hardened Titan (sorry if that sounds a bit dirty), Levi & Co. take him and Historia and ge tthe hell out of there. As Armin and Moblit got the injured but stable Hange to safety earlier, the Scouts suffer no fatalities.

But there is that tricky matter of the Big-Ass Titan, which is a sight to behold; like something out of a Miyazaki film (Nausicaä, to be precise), yet like those Giant Warriors, not quite complete, and so it crawls awkwardly on its belly. Still, it’s so damn huge even in its current state it will reach the wall by dawn—and likely incinerate it.

When the initial plan to let Eren feed himself to Rob is shot down (there’s no guarantee Rob will return to being a human even if he eats Eren), the plan becomes “Stop the Big-Ass Titan at all costs.” Since Eren now has the Hardening Ability, there’s now a decent shot of repairing Wall Maria, but no repairs can take place until Rob is dealt with.

However, we do learn that Rob’s story about Eren’s father was naturally biased; in reality, Dr. Yaeger was trying to save humanity by destroying the line of the First King and the Reiss reliance on brainwashing. There’s also fresh mentions of the secrets in Eren’s basement, so there’s that.

Levi adds to Historia’s burdens by informing her that Erwin has insisted that once the latest battle is over, she will have to take up the mantle of Queen in order to give the regiment coup legitimacy and appease the public. Both Connie and Jean rightly pipe up that that shit ain’t fair, Historia has only just turned the page and gained as sense of individuality, only to be thrust into yet another duty.

I’ve really enjoyed Tori’s rise to prominence since her true identity was revealed; she’s basically a co-protagonist alongside Eren, and watching her decide her course in life in a world where such a thing’s a great luxury, has been a delight.  She’s grateful for their defense, but she agrees without complaint…but with one request: If she’s to be queen, she’s going to give it all she’s got in the battle that proceeds her coronation.

That means donning the uniform of the Scout Regiment, strapping on her ODM gear, and taking her place beside her comrades—her friends—her true family—to whom she owes not only her life, but her sense of self. Rob isn’t her dad anymore; he’s the enemy. It’s time to go to work.

Attack on Titan – 44 – Eat Me, Save Humanity

As Rob Reiss prepares to instruct Historia to inject a serum that will transform her into a Titan so she can eat Eren, Hange and Levi’s team enters the cavern, sporting some unconventional tactics in order to level the playing field against Kenny and his intensively-prepared anti-personnel troops.

With a combination of surprise, gunpowder, signal flare smoke, and pure guile, Eren’s allies are able to get right on top of Kenny’s people; the hard part is having to make the decision to kill their fellow human beings for the first time.

The sequence is taut and intense, but doesn’t forget to show those tiny moments of hesitation that linger in the thoughts of Sasha, Jean, and Connie. Not surprisingly, there’s nary a shred of hesitation in either Levi or Mikasa.

Kenny himself enters the fray, and quickly finds his nephew Levi is a lot tougher than he gave him credit for, successfully wounding him in the midsection and forcing him to retreat almost as quickly as he arrives.

But his presence gives his second-in-command the opening she needs to deal a crushing blow to the Scouts: by getting the advantage over Hange Zoe and seriously wounding her. If she isn’t able to get back up, that’s a huge blow for the good guys (even if it’s been demonstrated that neither Hange nor anyone else is 100% good or bad here).

This season of Titan continues to be generous with its answers regarding what the heck is up with this world, filling in a few more of the many blanks that have lingered for nearly four dozen episodes. Rob is the source of more world history wisdom. Turns out most of society, due to the mind control of the Reiss Titans, don’t recall any history beyond 100 years…no doubt since an ignorance populace is easier to control.

The Founding Reiss Titan used its power to built the Walls that protect humanity, but also passed on all the knowledge that proceeded the boundaries of the rest of mankind; how the world as they know it was formed and how to preserve it. That is now Historia’s repsonsibility; she has to eat Eren in order to inherit Freda’s memories as well as her powers.

When an eavesdropping Kenny hears that only someone with the blood of the Reiss’ can inherit the full power and memories of their predecessor (meaning if he took the serum and ate Eren, it would be meaningless) he’s pissed.

More than having planned to betray Rob, he knew Rob knew he’d betray him one day, and even counted on it, but not until it was all but too late to do anything about it. Rob releases Kenny from his service, and Kenny in turn decides to make things interesting by removing Eren’s gag and cutting him so he’ll transform and give Historia a fight.

That would have likely been something quite awesome to behold…but something perhaps more interesting happens instead: Eren doesn’t transform. He doesn’t want to; he wants to die. He sees himself as the cause of all of the trouble they’ve been in up to this point, and more importantly, all of the people who died, who he lists in roughly the order in which they died.

With both Rob and Eren begging her to inject herself with the transformation serum and eat Eren, Historia seems stuck between a rock and a hard place…but there’s still the matter of what she, an individual, wants to do, even if her duty seems clear, while her victim is ready to die for the sake of humanity and correcting perceived wrongs, both his and those of his father.

But then she remembers Ymir, telling her whether she’s simply trying to do something “nice” (i.e. what she thinks everyone expects of her). She also rememebers that time on top of that castle, when Ymir, before transforming, tells her that all she wants is for Historia to live a life she’s proud of.

‘Tori can’t do that if she injects herself. She can’t do that if she eats Eren. She can’t do that if she exterminates the Titans. Rob calling what she’s becoming to be something akin to godhood is the last straw. She slaps the syringe out of Rob’s hands and it shatters on the ground.

Historia decides to free Eren, because she likes him a heck of a lot more than she likes the rest of humanity. As far as she’s concerned, they can all get wiped out by Titans—hell, she’ll even lend a hand, declaring herself both “humanity’s biggest enemy” and “the worst girl who ever lived”…neither of which are true. Humanity’s true worst enemy? Itself. Historia Reiss? More badass than bad.

Unfortunately, Historia is also her own worst enemy, as she breaks the syringe but then rushes to free Eren, leaving the puddle of MacGuffin transformation serum completely unprotected, ready to be lapped up by anyone. And not just anyone laps it up; Rob does, not long after telling Tori in no uncertain terms that he should never be the one to transform. We didn’t learn the reason why, but I imagine we will, very soon.

Attack on Titan – 43 – One Human or Less

Eren wakes up in the strange blue cave, a place he’s never been, but which he still finds familiar. Rob appears with Historia and tells Eren there’s a reason for that. Then Rob and Tori place their hands on his back, and the memories come back fast and furious. Not those of Eren himself, but those of his father, and how he came to inject his son with the royal power of Titans.

The memory awakening works both ways, with Historia suddenly remembering her half-sister Freida, who would periodically visit her to make sure she was doing okay, each time using her Titan “Scream”-derived power to wipe all of Tori’s memories before departing.

Rob completes the puzzle by combining Historia’s memories of Freida with those from Eren’s father Grisha’s POV, while also explaining the severe damage to the chapel above. Grisha came to steal the Titan powers from the Reiss’, specifically Freida, and while her Titan form was the most powerful, she lacked Grisha’s combat experience, and he ate her, thus stealing her Titan-controlling “Scream.”

Grisha then passed “Scream” to Eren via injection. To ensure no other Reiss would have the power, the Grisha Titan slaughtered Rob’s entire family. Only Historia wasn’t there, and she still carries the noble blood. Now that Rob has Eren, he no doubt intends to recover “Scream” for Historia. Whether she understands that will mean the end for Eren, I can’t yet say.

Back in the capital, Pyxis tells Erwin their coup is all for nothing if Rob Reiss obtains Eren’s “Scream.” They may have toppled the fake king, but they seem reluctant to let another take up the mantle of leadership so soon…not if they’re not sure it’s what’s best for humanity, which is all Pyxis cares about, and the only reason he sided with (the very sadistic) Zachary and Erwin.

Rob trusts Kenny, but he probably shouldn’t, if Kenny’s smirk and scoff upon turning his back on Rob is any indication. Not to mention the fact Kenny is an Ackerman, a clan of warriors who once served as the swords and protectors of kings.

They started to become persecuted along with the Asian races, both groups that were immune to the royal power to wipe memories. We learn this in a flashback in which Kenny talks with his grandfather who is on his death bed. We also learn of Kenny’s sister Kuchel, who was pregnant with (I’m guessing) Levi at the time.

In any case, if the goal is to save Eren from being eaten, Mikasa, Armin, Levi, Hange, Sasha, Connie, and Jean will have to get through Kenny and his slightly depleted but still formidable Anti-Personnel Control Squad.

Attack on Titan – 42 – The Lone Choices of Many Change the World

The plan Erwin sets into motion doesn’t just belong to or rely upon him. He must sit there, in front of the nobles sentencing him to death at the tacit approval of a fake king and watch how things unfold. However, he does betray a wry grin upon realizing that the right people made the choices he hoped they would. That’s when a representative of Pyxis’ Garrison Regiment bursts in and announces that Wall Rose has been breached by the Colossal/Armored Titan duo.

The members of the ruling government immediately show their colors by ordering all of Wall Sina’s gates closed, abandoning everyone in the breached Wall Rose in order to preserve government stability. Rather than risk a civil war between Rose and Sina over dwindling resources, they’d rather every man, woman, and child in Rose perish.

It proves too much for Nile, who refuses to carry out the order. Before he can be relieved or punished, Premier Zachary and his men burst into the throne room and, along with Pyxis, announce a military coup. Their reason? The government just violated the vary inviolate law not to put personal gain before what’s best for humanity.

Furthermore, the “King”, who never so much as lifts his head throughout this entire ordeal, is merely a dotard who has to be kicked awake by one of the councilors using him as a puppet for so long. The old government officials are arrested and led out, and eventually Irwin climbs the very gallows where his execution was to take place to announce the change in leadership.

Thanks to Flegel Reeves, the press reports what actually happened for once, and Hange meets back up with Levi Squad in the woods to deliver the good news themselves: The Scout Regiment are no longer criminals or fugitives, but free men and women. However, one could say the easy part—dispatching the overconfident government—was the easy part. Finding and rescuing Eren and Historia could prove more difficult.

In a fine conversation in their horse-drawn coach, Zachary and Irwin discuss why they made the choices they did. Zach was more concerned with sticking it to the government officials he hated so much than saving humanity, but concludes and he and Irwin aren’t so different: their actions may ultimately save humanity or may not, but the similarity is in the fact that both of them saught to preserve their own lives.

What of Eren? He wakes up deep beneath the Reiss family chapel, a cathedralic cavern made of eerily blue luminescent rock, chained to a great plinth. The night Wall Maria fell five years ago, Rob Reiss lost his entire family to “raiders” who destroyed the above-ground chapel, but the level of destruction doesn’t fit the M.O. of raiders. I’m guessing the damage was caused by a Titan.

And that cave is apparently where new Titans are made, by feeding humans who can transform to humans who can’t, imbuing them with the power to do so. It looks like Eren is the dish and Historia the intended diner. Will Mikasa and Armin make it in time to stop this?